


One Way to Propose...

by SunnySinclair



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Multi, Other, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 10:45:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8747488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunnySinclair/pseuds/SunnySinclair
Summary: Steve’s soulmark was always a little odd. It’s a good thing Bucky got one just as strange, so they could look forward to meeting their third together.Darcy just doesn’t want to face the relatives probing questions about her still single status.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Soulmates AU - Soulmarks are the first words your soulmate says on meeting.

“You wanna elope with me?”

Those were the words of Steve’s soulmark. He’d had them stamped on his arm since he was born, to the absolute horror of his mother (and he was told later the nurses, who all crossed themselves at the blasphemy of it all).

Steve just found them confusing – who met their soulmate and instantly suggested running off to get married?

When the war started though he thought he understood. Many people were desperately trying to find their matches before the worst happened. A lot of those that did only had a short time before their other half shipped overseas to help with the war effort. A lot more simply had to watch their words fade to grey without ever having heard them.

He was almost envious of Bucky, being blank. Blank meant there wasn’t some grand possibility you were missing out on, or at least that was Steve’s opinion. Bucky had learned to keep his opinion on it to himself, except when he got drunk sometimes.

“You don’t know Stevie, you’ve got someone out there who was made just for you. Don’t take it for granted. Me? I’ve got no one. ‘M probably gonna die in that war, not good ‘nuff for anybody to get marked.”

“Don’t talk like that Buck. You’ve always got me, words or not. To the end of the line, right?”

“Yeah Stevie, to the end of the line.”

They were both surprised to discover that Bucky was marked after Steve had rescued him from Zola.

“It’s me. It’s Steve.” Was scrawled over Bucky’s chest, and Steve had stared at those words with his mouth opening before pulling up his own shirt to show Bucky the single word that had appeared on him too.

“Steve?”

That wasn’t all though, because Bucky discovered a day later another mark, wrapped around his thigh.

“How about you? You interested in some spontaneous marriage?”

He’d given a shout and, with his pants still around his knees, stumbled over to Steve to show him (there’d been a lot of shouting from the men in their camp then too). The handwriting was the same. Whoever Steve’s dame was, she was Bucky’s now too. They were both ecstatic, and looking forward to a future that suddenly seemed a lot brighter. Them, together. A woman between them. In the dark they’d whisper about what it would be like when the fight was done and they’d found her. How maybe they’d take her up on that elopement offer, just run away to be together, just the three of them.

“Could get a house. One with plenty of room to grow. Not too far from the city though.”

“And a yard for a dog. You could get a dog, now you’re not allergic.”

“What if our girl likes cats?”

“Then we get a coupla cats to go with the dog. Cats are just as good.”

“Cats good around babies?”

“Ours would be.”

When Steve had drifted off though, Bucky’s thoughts would turn darker as he stared at the canvas over their heads. He’d gotten marks, but at what cost? What had happened to him in Zola’s workshop that had made him worth them now? He wondered sometimes, when the shadows were long, whether he’d actually died there and this was just the version of heaven he’d been given.

He kept those thoughts very much to himself though.

And all too soon it didn’t matter. He fell, and Steve watched, helpless, and just like that all the hope was gone.

When Steve dropped the Valkyrie in to the water less than a week later he sent up a silent apology to the soulmate neither of them had had the chance to meet yet.

It was more than seven decades later that he’d come to understand some of fates ideas of how his life was meant to go, and it came in the form of Bucky, lost and broken and full of regret but still so very alive.

They’d always been meant to end up here, and though the path was long and hard, they were finally together. And to make it even better, they were in a time when most people were fully accepting of them as two men in love, with or without soulmarks to bind them.

“Hell of a thing ain’t it Buck?”

“Can you imagine Father Peterson’s face if he was alive today? Man always looked like he’d been sucking on a lemon as it was.”

“Yeah, well, fuck ‘im. There’s nothing wrong with what we’ve got, no matter what anyone says.”

“That what you’re gonna say to those fans of yours who wanna ban gay again?”

“Pretty sure I already did. A coupla times. On national television.”

“There he is.”

“There’s who?”

“The guy I fell in love with, wouldn’t back down no matter what if he thought he was in the right.”

“Shut up jerk. And I don’t think, I know I’m right.”

“Why don’t you make me shut up then?”

“I will. ‘Sides, you got better things to do with that mouth than talk shit.”

It was closer to eight decades than seven after they’d died the first time round that they finally met their dame.

“Would you quit being ridiculous and do some actual work?” Jane’s voice drifted from her lab in the home she shared with Thor. Steve had taken Bucky to visit the god and to get away from the city for a while. They were Brooklyn boys through and through, but it got a bit much sometimes.

Jane’s exasperation was met with a dramatic wail, which in turn was met with Jane huffing.

Steve and Bucky glanced at each before shrugging and heading to the lab. It sure didn’t sound like Jane was talking to Thor, which meant someone else was there who neither of them knew about. It was simple safety to check it out, confirm the person wasn’t a threat.

And they were both just plain curious.

They peeked in to the lab to see Jane throwing her hands in the air and turning her back on another woman, who was slouched over a desk with her face buried in her hands. All they could see of her was the spill of dark hair across the table.

“You!” Steve jumped and glanced back at Jane, who was pointing a finger at him. “Both of you, actually. You’ve been through hell. Would you tell her that the annual get together with her family isn’t worth this much bitching and moaning?”

“Uh…” Steve muttered, looking to Bucky to find him just as slack-jawed.

“Shut up Jane, you have no idea! You’re taking an actual-facts god home to your mum, you don’t have to deal with anything like this!” The voice was muffled, since her face was still buried, but then the young woman looked up and spotted the two in the doorway.

“You wanna elope with me?” She asked Steve, eyes pleading. He didn’t even have time to answer before her gaze swung to Bucky. “How about you? You interested in some spontaneous marriage?”

“Darcy!” Jane all but screeched.

“Well I’m not one to turn down a lady,” Bucky said, a grin slowly growing on his face. Darcy shot upright so quickly he was worried she’d just given herself whiplash.

“And you’d sure look good in white,” Steve finished, giving her a once over.

Darcy gave a meep and covered her mouth with her hands. They were worried they’d said something wrong, but then the giggles started.

“Oh my gods!” Darcy gasped between laughs. “Are you serious? Your soulmarks are marriage proposals? Oh man I should probably say sorry, but wow, that’s-“ She shook her head and broke off, laughing again.

“’S’all good with us, Stevie here always did like a girl with moxy,” Bucky grinned, coming in to the lab proper. “Hi,” he said, sticking out a hand. Darcy looked at it then rolled her eyes. Instead of shaking his offered hand she rounded her desk and wrapped him up in a tight hug.

“So,” Steve grinned, leaning in the doorway and watching his two soulmates embrace. “That offer to elope still on the table?”

“Maybe,” Darcy said slowly, pulling back from Bucky just enough to see Steve from around him. “How about a date first though? Y’know, just to make sure you’re not both asses.”

“Oh he’s an ass,” Bucky said, nodding his head towards Steve.

“Hey!” Steve exclaimed. “You’re an ass too, jerk.”

“Well I don’t know if that’s true, but you both sure have fine asses,” Darcy snickered. “Come on, we should date right now. I’ll make cookies, you can look ridiculous at our too tiny kitchen counter, it’ll be great.”

“Sounds like a plan doll,” Steve said, stepping back from the doorway to let her through, dragging Bucky with her by the hand.

“Hey Jane! I’m cutting out early!” She called back, and Jane just gave a sigh. “I gotta get to know my soulmates. And practice exactly which inflection to use when I tell Aunt Esther to suck it!”


End file.
